Community accuses Wonderland co-founder of involvement with QuadrigaCX

The Wonderland DeFi protocol co-founder going by the handle 0xSifu is Michael Patryn, co-founder of the failed Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX, according to an on-chain detective using the alias zachxbt.eth.

In confirmation, he published a correspondence with the project’s other co-founder, Daniele Sestagalli.

1/ This needs to be shared @0xSifu is the Co-founder of QuadrigaCX, Michael Patryn. If you are unfamiliar that is the Canadian exchange that collapsed in 2019 after the founder Gerald Cotten disappeared with $169m

I have confirmed this with Daniele over messages. pic.twitter.com/qSfWNnQPhr

— zachxbt.eth (@zachxbt) January 27, 2022

“This needs to be shared: 0xSifu is the co-founder of QuadrigaCX, Michael Patryn. If you don’t know, that is the Canadian exchange that collapsed in 2019 after the founder Gerald Cotten disappeared with $169m,” he wrote.

Daniele Sestagalli initially did not directly confirm the investigator’s findings, but admitted that his partner in the past “made mistakes”.

“I agree that former prisoners deserve a second chance, but it’s not about being convicted,” he stressed.

In 2005, he pled guilty to credit and bank fraud

In 2007, he admitted burglary, theft and computer fraud

In 2018, he and his partner “lost access” to $115M in customer funds

I agree that inmates deserve second chances but this is NOT about being convicted.

— nour (@NourHaridy) January 27, 2022

In response, one user reminded some details of Patryn’s biography.

• 2005 — pleaded guilty to credit and bank fraud;
• 2007 — pleaded guilty to burglary, theft and computer fraud.

“I agree with the fact that former prisoners deserve a second chance, but it’s not about being convicted,” he stressed.

Against a wave of outrage, Sestagalli admitted that he learned the identity of 0xSifu about a month ago, but left him in charge of the protocol’s treasury. He proposed that 0xSifu step down until approved by a community vote.

My statement on Recent Developmens at Wonderland https://t.co/Lq3TK4z1fI

— Daniele never asks to DM (@danielesesta) January 27, 2022

Sestagalli and 0xSifu founded Wonderland in September 2021 as a fork of the Olympus protocol on the Avalanche blockchain. The project aims to create a stablecoin backed by a pool of crypto assets.

The native Wonderland token (TIME) after zachxbt.eth’s tweet fell from around $540 to a low of $343 — about 36% (CoinGecko). At the time of writing the price had rebounded to $380.

Since the start of the year, the token’s price has fallen roughly 90%.

Total value locked (TVL) in the protocol over the past week declined by more than 86%. The metric accelerated the fall, dropping 73% in the last hour alone.

Alongside the teams of Abracadabra, Popsicle Finance, Wonderland, and, recently, SushiSwap, the Wonderland community is part of the decentralised organisation Frog Nation. 0xSifu holds the role of chief financial officer there.

The TVL of the aforementioned projects has also declined noticeably.

In 2021, Netflix announced plans to release a documentary film about the death of QuadrigaCX founder and CEO Gerald Cotten.

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